The inventions described herein relate to electronic communication systems. More particularly, the inventions described herein relate to systems and methods for monitoring messages in electronic communication systems that allows network operators to define and identify messages of interest, classify and organize those messages to efficiently store them to facilitate subsequent retrieval, auditing or compliance inquiries.
Currently, corporate environments provide numerous forms of electronic communication. For example, corporate employees may communicate internally or with others outside the company through telephones, videophones, voicemail, email, text messages, instant messages, or through electronic collaboration applications such as chat rooms or online blogs. In many cases, these messaging solutions may further include imbedded content such as audio, video or text based attachments that convey or otherwise communicate the desired information, with the messaging application merely acting as a delivery agent.
Such messaging applications can be divided into two general groups, synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous messaging typically involves a substantially instant dialogue between the communicating parties. Asynchronous messaging, on the other hand, involves monologue-based messages between the communicating parties, which are stored in a known location and may be later accessed by the receiving party to review and respond.
Synchronous messaging is still primarily carried out using PBX (Private Branch Exchange) or PSTN (public switched telephone network) networks. With the advent of commercially viable data oriented messaging solutions, more and more synchronous communications are occurring over the Internet in different forms. Some of the most popular type of synchronous messaging include IM (instant messaging), and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) involving streaming audio/video technologies.
Asynchronous messaging is mostly carried out using commercial messaging systems, which involve electronic mailing (e.g., email or SMTP server). These types of messaging systems usually have central storage locations, such as an email or other messaging server, which is frequently administered by the business entity using them.
Synchronous messaging platforms using analog communication technologies remain fairly common. Although data oriented communication, such instant messaging and VoIP, is becoming increasingly popular, it has not fully superseded traditional methods of device based communication (e.g., PSTN telephone communication). As a result, a new blend of communication solutions are being generated, where data oriented communication mechanisms complement the traditional legacy networks. These approaches create numerous possible messaging configurations in which data oriented networks control traditional, and enable messaging between the two. Solutions are being created that integrate these networks and add more sophisticated features into the combination so as to increasingly transform conventional device interaction to individual interaction.
One class of such solutions includes instant messaging applications that promote optimum network use which increases performance of the IM application. Peer to peer (P2P) protocols have been used in this scenario, which provide direct host to host connections between the participants using optimized network paths. Many consumer applications in this sector use proprietary P2P protocols. Such applications tend to be centered on the individual. Administration of these applications may be difficult for network operators, especially in connection with certain management functions such as resource allocation or regulatory compliance. In addition, these applications do not fit neatly within the existing information structures of the corporate networks, thus making collaboration application limited.
A second class of applications prefers centralized synchronous messaging applications. In these applications, the organization may exert control over the communications environment from a compliance or management perspective, which may be easily integrated with its own corporate networks as well as partner networks. This may allow users to gain access to corporate enabled features such as security, compliance and effective policy applications for the administrators, while at the same time allowing use of corporate identity management features to locate people connected to the network. Client/server applications are used in these systems, and a set of protocols are being developed based on the standards.
Although the emergence of these various forms of electronic communication, and their integration into one another have generally improved productivity, no central management system exists to monitor, coordinate or otherwise administer or oversee such communications. As a result, IT managers tend to administer each of these communication technologies separately, which causes significant inefficiencies when attempting to implement corporate data management or communication polices.
For example, regulatory requirements increasingly require businesses to comply with data retention and administration standards that help complete an audit (usually by external audit agencies) of the activities undertaken by individuals involved in the business. One important activity performed in the course of conducting the business is the various forms of electronic messaging. Accordingly, auditors are frequently interested in examining the entire body of electronic messages relating to certain aspects of the business irrespective of the particular communication platform(s) used. Thus, it would be desirable to have the capability to define and identify electronic messages of interest within a business enterprise and store them such that they can easily be retrieved and examined in connection with an audit or other inquiry.
Furthermore, company management may wish to restrict, limit or otherwise be aware of communications relating to certain subject matter or among certain parties in order to ensure compliance with established communication policies or other administrative or legal restrictions. Thus, it would be further desirable to have the capability to define and identify electronic messages of interest before, during, or after a communication session so that any appropriate action may be taken (restrict communication, tag and store message as relevant to one or more topics or areas of inquiry, etc.).